Status

Democrats unquestionably had a great day on Tuesday, winning elections across the country.  Separately, Wednesday’s Supreme Court arguments in the case regarding the legality of Trump’s tariffs indicated that many of the justices are at least a wee bit reluctant to approve Trump’s quite obviously unconstitutional power grab.

Yay?

Sorry, but a little black cloud tends to follow me around these days.

Yesterday’s elections might not be the bellwether that everyone seems to think they are.  While they are collectively significant, they can be individually explained away by local circumstances.  The VA Governor race had a horrible GOP candidate. The NYC Mayor race gave people no great choices. The PA Supreme Court elections simply followed a decades-long traditional path. The CA redistricting effort was conducted in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.  Few of these elections were real battleground contests and Democrats are no less structurally impotent now than they were before they began their victory laps.

Concurrently, the Supreme Court arguments might not be at all indicative of the final votes.  Chances are that the justices made up their minds well beforehand and their in-court questions could have been purely for show.  This is the exact same court that took great pleasure in constantly limiting Biden’s presidential powers, so they might want to display some hint of fairness.  In the end, however, they don’t need to explain why a Democratic president’s powers are limited while a Republican president’s powers are infinite.  They can just rule that way.  In any case, all the parties know that there are other means by which Trump can impose his tariffs.  While most are unconstitutional as well, they will require additional rounds of legal battles in lower courts before SCOTUS needs to weigh in again.  Nothing will likely change in the short-term regardless of any eventual ruling in this case.

I again apologize for channeling Eeyore.  However, it seems that every time I start to write a new blog post, another topic of irritation immediately demands my attention.

Squirrel!!

My never-ending rotation of political grievances – both large and small – is frankly overwhelming.  In a truly random order, I’ve found myself appalled by…

• the treatment of our military as Trump’s personal toys
• the elevation of opinion over science across all branches of government
• the attempts to institutionalize election interference
• the resurgence of the Ugly American persona throughout the world
• the favoring of foreign dictators over democratic allies
• the destruction of the White House’s Rose Garden and East Wing purely by Presidential fiat
• the attacks on universities for considering “anti-American” (read: “anti-Trump”) viewpoints
• the assaults on the freedom of the press
• the imposition of sanctions against law firms that represent people Trump doesn’t like
• the attacks on regulatory agencies which were explicitly designed to be politically independent
• the freezing of congressionally-approved federal funds and grants that don’t match Trump’s “vision”
• the humiliating sycophancy of Trump’s minions
• the embarrassing campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize
• the weaponization of the DOJ, by explicit Presidential directive, against Trump’s opponents
• the massive executive power grab with the apparent blessings of the legislature and judiciary
• the $40 billion bailout given to Argentina, again without Congressional input
• the triumph of autocratic government by unchecked executive orders
• the unilateral imposition of tariffs, based purely on Trump’s whims and personal preferences
• the targeting of working, productive immigrants for deportation as opposed to the promised dangerous criminals
• the deployment of ICE agents as an unaccountable, anonymous paramilitary force to states that don’t want them
• the deployment of National Guard troops from Republican-run states to Democratic-run states that don’t want them
• the declaration of acetaminophen as harmful by a president who can’t pronouce it
• the use of the FCC’s licensing authority to suppress dissent
• the pending move of the space shuttle Discovery from VA to TX, even though the $300M+ move is likely to destroy it
• the last-minute political decision to deny emergency funding of SNAP benefits to feed children, as ordered by the courts
• the failure to stop the war in Ukraine, as promised
• the failure to reduce the costs of consumer goods, as promised
• the granting of a pardon to a crypto fraudster who helped the Trump family’s crypto company
• the commutation of former GOP Congressman George Santos’ sentence
• the personal acceptance of a customized PLANE from a country that provided funding for the 9/11 air attacks
• the firing of FBI agents and DOJ attorneys because they did their jobs under Biden
• the $2 TRILLION increase in the national debt in the 10 months since Trump took office

And that’s just off the top of my head.  I’m sure I missed something major.

Yeah, I know.  Breathe…

I know that need to more graciously accept whatever wins may come my way.  I also know that I need to select a single topic at a time for commentary herein.  I make no promises.  But even if I find myself posting into a black hole, composing these pieces has helped to calm my nerves in the past.  And my nerves need calming, despite this week’s good news.